AN estimated 1.25m households in Wales are shelling out £15 a year more to power their homes.

Energy regulator Ofgem is now to examine claims the country pays £19m more a year than the rest of the UK.

Energywatch said they could not explain why Welsh consumers still paid up to 4% more than the rest of Britain, even after taking out supply-chain costs such as upkeep of the network.

It found homes in South Wales were worst off, paying 5% more for electricity than in North Wales and 10% more than in England.

Assembly members say they want to see Welsh customers compensated.

Yesterday Steve Woosey from the Energy Savings Trust, North Wales, said power is more expensive in harder-to-reach areas.

He said: “Wales is not the only expensive place, energy prices in the South West of England are pretty costly as well.

“It is because we live at the end of the power network and it is harder to send it down the wires to get to isolated and hard to reach places.

“But at the same time, we are an area with lower salaries and in our part of the world we travel more, our houses are older and harder to heat with less gas mains, not to mention the increasing costs of energy.”

She said: “Welsh consumers demand to know if they are being ripped off.

“Energy companies are making huge profits at the same time as the number of people falling into fuel poverty in Wales continues to rise.

“Only Ofgem can get to the bottom of this issue and examine the true picture.

“If their findings are that Welsh consumers have been treated unfairly, then I shall be wanting to see compensation paid by those companies along with refunds to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”

Environment Minister Jane Davidson said Ofgem had written to her to confirm a review of energy markets will look at differences around the UK.

The Assembly Government estimated in 2006 243,000 families in Wales were in fuel poverty, meaning they spent more than a tenth of their incomes on utility bills.

Ms Davidson is due to meet big energy suppliers to discuss the problem.

She said: “At a time when more people are at risk of fuel poverty due to rising prices it is important that Ofgem looks at regional price differences to ensure that Welsh consumers are charged the same as other parts of the UK.”